US President Donald Trump disparaged Jewish voters who support Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee, at a rally in Port Huron on Sunday.
“Any Jewish person that supports this guy should be ashamed of themselves,” Trump told some 4,000 supporters in the city north of Detroit, where he stumped for Republican nominee Mike Rogers. “You should never speak to them again.”
Hundreds of Michigan Jews have pledged to vote for El-Sayed, who polls indicate is narrowly leading Rogers in a race key to determining control of the Senate. Another subset of Jews has pressured El-Sayed, a staunch critic of Israel, to defend “Jewish safety - including for Zionist Jews” and “Jewish sovereignty in Israel.” Still others have urged their community members to reject El-Sayed outright and back Rogers.
El-Sayed opposes US military aid to Israel, saying the country has committed genocide in Gaza and is “not an ally.” Those positions divided the Democratic Party during his primary campaign against pro-Israel US Rep. Haley Stevens, whom he narrowly bested in August.
A former public health official, El-Sayed has also emphasized affordable healthcare, housing, and education. He has made a concentrated push to reach undecided Jewish voters in the homestretch before the Nov. 3 midterm election, hiring a Jewish outreach director last week.
Trump previously disparaged Jewish Democrat voters as 'disloyal' to other Jews, Israel
Trump has in the past accused Jews who vote for Democrats of being “disloyal to Jewish people” and “disloyal to Israel.”
At the Port Huron rally, he said he is “polling at 99% in Israel,” which will hold national elections on Tuesday.
Trump did not cite evidence for the claim, and no publicly available surveys support it. While he has historically been popular among Israelis, a June poll by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) found the Israeli public’s trust in him was declining. The poll said 12% of Israelis reported having a great deal of trust in Trump, down from 21% in May, while the share of Israelis who completely distrust him rose from 32% to 37%.
Trump joined his comments about Jews and Israel with anti-Muslim rhetoric about El-Sayed, who would become the first Muslim in the Senate if he is elected.
El-Sayed 'on the side of the terrorists,' Trump says
Trump called El-Sayed a “jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member” who was “on the side of the terrorists,” adding that he would “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.”
He threatened that “if Abdul and the Democrats win, they will open the floodgates and invite hordes of jihadists to our shores, creating a nightmare of violence and terror until you cannot even have a Christmas.”
Trump claimed that El-Sayed’s half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, celebrated the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. On the first anniversary of the attack, Abdelhadi posted a video that said, “no matter how great the brutality, the oppression, the intensity of what we’re going through, the horizon of justice is just around the corner,” according to The New York Times. She did not directly mention or celebrate the violence.
Trump also said that El-Sayed’s mother had “worked for an organization that gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.” A Times investigation reported that El-Sayed’s mother worked as a nurse in Missouri for a Muslim aid group that was later designated by the US government as a supporter of terrorist groups. She was never accused of wrongdoing.
El-Sayed’s campaign has said that he “disagrees” with his sister on “a number of political positions and the rhetoric she’s chosen to use, including on foreign policy.” He was raised by his father and stepmother and has said that he had little relationship with his biological mother while growing up.
Former US president Barack Obama campaigned with El-Sayed in Detroit on Saturday, praising his potential partnership with Democratic Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who has endorsed El-Sayed.
“Imagine the power duo of Abdul and Elissa,” said Obama. “You got a Muslim man, you got a Jewish woman, fighting for you in the United States Senate. That’s something, Michigan, you can be proud of.”